(a) Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus and a method for displaying vehicle information capable of preventing visibility from being degraded by controlling a display of preceding vehicle information depending on a position of a preceding vehicle within an augmented reality display region of a head-up display (HUD) at the time of driving with a cruise control feature activated.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Generally, a head-up display (HUD) mounted in a vehicle displays main information required for driving on the front glass of a vehicle. For example, the head-up display displays vehicle information, such as a vehicle speed, warning matters when a vehicle is driving on a road, rear-side warning, smart cruise control (SCC) information, lane keeping assist system (LKAS) information, and the like.
The head-up display may allow a driver to directly confirm required driving information in a state in which the driver keeps his or her eyes forward so as to minimize a driver's eye movement, thereby improving driving safety.
Existing head-up displays output in an overlapping manner a preceding vehicle mark instructing a preceding vehicle (following vehicle) sensed by a smart cruise control system and an inter-vehicle distance mark indicating a distance between the preceding vehicle and a driver's own vehicle on a reality screen seen with the driver's eyes to implement augmented reality (AR). In this case, the head-up display adjusts a mark size based on a vehicle width of the preceding vehicle included in a front image (reality screen) photographed by a front camera. Therefore, the head-up display performs a control to reduce a size of the preceding vehicle mark displayed on an eyebox of a head-up display screen (information display region) when the preceding vehicle is away from the driver's own vehicle and thus the size of the preceding vehicle seen on the reality screen is reduced, such that visibility may be degraded. On the other hand, the head-up display causes a truncation that since the preceding vehicle approaches the driver's own vehicle and thus the size of the preceding vehicle seen on the reality screen is increased, as illustrated in FIG. 1, the preceding vehicle mark deviates from the eyebox and thus a portion of the preceding vehicle mark is truncated.
Further, even when a driver's own vehicle drives around a sharp curve, the phenomenon that the mark displayed by the head-up display is truncated and displayed occurs.